CLEVELAND — This was all supposed to happen last year. The confetti bombs, the trophy lifts, the emotional finale to an unscathed season.
A year ago, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley took an early exit off the Final Four stage, sent Aliyah Boston’s senior class to the WNBA and contemplated how to coach a young team that wouldn’t make her life as easy.
It was a tough season of adjustment and 12 hours before the national title game, she said it didn’t feel as if her team were entering the game undefeated again. She had seen lax preparation early in the season and bad basketball at points over the past couple of months. This is a group she lovingly calls a "daycare" because of the youth on the team.
Surrounded by her third championship team and Boston, now an analyst for ESPN, Staley uncharacteristically broke down shortly after the buzzer sounded on a 87-75 win over Iowa at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. She leaned over toward the floor, rose up and attempted to speak.
“It was emotional to me because of how it ended last year,” Staley told reporters afterward.
Staley said she was emotional at the beginning of the game, too, because she didn’t want what happened last year to happen again. It was Iowa that bounced South Carolina in the semifinal in Dallas.
“I wasn't going to allow what I felt happened to us last year to happen this year,” Staley said. “So I had a little bit of PTSD, and I addressed it in real-time.”
It may be the best coaching job of her career. Her first title came with A’ja Wilson and Allisha Gray leading the way as juniors in 2017. Both remain in the WNBA with Wilson a two-time MVP and two-time champion. The second was in 2022 during Boston’s junior year and Naismith-winning season. Five of those players are or were in the pros. Staley is 3 for 3 in DI national title games as a coach.
But this squad? They’re all incredibly talented without a superstar among them. Center Kamilla Cardoso is a potential lottery pick in next week’s WNBA Draft, but she doesn’t take over games like Wilson or Boston. To win this one, two freshmen stepped up off the bench for big performances.
Tessa Johnson averaged 6.6 points in 17.9 minutes per game in the regular season. Against Iowa, she scored a team-high 19 while shooting a clutch 3 of 6 from 3-point range in 25 minutes.
“She's always ready for the moments,” teammate Raven Johnson said. “When her number is called, she's always ready. Every shot she puts up, it goes in. Just what Tessa does.”
MiLaysia Fulwiley put her moves on display again to score nine points with four rebounds and four assists. Johnson played strong defense on Clark, keeping her to 30 when the superstar dropped 41 on them last year. Te-Hina Paopao was 3-of-4 shooting from the perimeter, missing her final attempt, to lift South Carolina in the area that lost them the game last year. She had 14 points, Cardoso had 15 and Chloe Kitts had 11. The Gamecocks collectively outrebounded the undersized Hawkeyes, 51-29.
It’s the depth that crushed opponents all season and the bench scored 37 of their 87 points while spreading around 17 fouls. That’s a credit to Staley’s coaching that she can bring so much talent into the program that half of it sits and isn’t bothered by it enough to leave or create problems.
“To have a roster that goes nine, 10 deep is — it's a privilege, it really is,” Staley said. “But it has to be developed slowly and the right way. Like, there's a lot of trust that has to be built because there's some games that some of them won't play a whole lot, especially the people that's coming off the bench.”
The only departing senior on this team is Cardoso, who spent two years playing behind Boston. Paopao, the key transfer Staley brought in last summer to make sure there wasn’t a repeat tournament loss, said she intends to come back for her extra year of COVID-19 eligibility.
The freshmen will be more experienced, which is scary given how good they already are through this season. A No. 2-ranked recruiting class is coming into Columbia in a few months as well.
“This team, we're going to be good,” Raven Johnson said. “Coach Staley, we have the best coach, what, in the country, in the nation, in the whole wide world? It's no telling what she's going to add to the pieces that's already here. I just say be on the lookout.”
It will be difficult to top this one, but one thing Staley hasn’t done yet? Win it back to back.
